-Ten Years Later-

|Nurgül's POV|

In the last ten years life has been rather quiet, our main goal was the state... Mehmet spent most of his time trying to solve financial problems which unfortunately turned out to be much more serious than we expected, this caused him to only go to two campaigns in ten years.

We had a beautiful daughter named Aysun who is now nine years old and then my son Orhan who is seven years old... After him we had my daughter Aydan who is five years old, right after her birth I got pregnant again but when I got sick with fever I lost the baby... It was a very difficult time but in the end I got my youngest şehzade, Murad who is now two years old.

Selim, my eldest son, I am grateful every day because although I did not give birth to him I had the honor of being his mother... He is now eleven years old but he already acts like a wise man, he takes care of all his brothers and sisters and not a day goes by without him visiting me and telling me about the events of his day.

Hafize and Razye are married now to two viziers whom Mehmet trusted very much, and they also had wonderful children... Mihrimah remained in exile while her other sister, Hurrem Sultan's daughter who was married in a faraway, died four years ago.

My sister Elizabeth, whose name is Esmanur now, married the governor of Sakarya six years ago... While Matilda, whose name is Hülya now, married a very wealthy man three years ago.

Mehmet and I got married five years ago and we still spend long hours in the garden from time to time.

                  ---―✧˖° ♛ °˖✧―---

Elif put a crown on my head as a final touch, I looked at my appearance in the mirror with a smile then took the small bottle of parfum and put a little on the sides of my neck.

After finishing, I headed to the valide safiye sultan's chambers to check on her, she had been tired for the past few weeks...

The door opened and I saw her still in her nightdress, sitting on the sofa with my nine-year-old daughter Aysun next to her.

"Sultana" I smiled as I sat next to her and then looked at Aysun "Since when did you wake up?"

"I wasn't feeling well so I came early to spend some time with my grandmother" She stood in front of us "Now I'm starting to feel sleepy I'm going to sleep"

Safiya Sultan smiled "Okay go.. you should rest"

I watched her then turned to Safiye Sultan "What's wrong?" I asked her curiously, Aysun loves me very much but she doesn't tell me most of her secrets.. she tells Safiye Sultan everything.

"She had a nightmare" She sighed a little "And the strange thing is that I also had some nightmares the past few days"

I was silent for a while, as far as I know, these are bad signs and dreams are very important, as Mehmet always used to tell Sheikh Al-Islam when he felt that he had an important dream.

I tried to remove these thoughts from my mind and put my hand over hers while worry emanated from my eyes "Are you okay? How is your health now?"

"I am trying to be okay, these are normal things" She smiled and pointed to herself "I have grown very old"

"You are still very elegant and beautiful, Sultana" She smiled calmly and we continued talking for a short while.

I left Safiye Sultan's room heading to Mehmet's chambers, now he would have finished the important divan... On my way there I met Selim, Ibrahim and Bayazid.

"We were on our way to you.. Mother" said Selim then took my hand and kissed it.

I watched them with a smile as they all kissed my hand then I questioned "What are you doing here?"

Bayezid quickly replied "We took permission from my father to skip classes and instead spend the whole day in the garden training"

"Mother" Ibrahim looked at me steadfastly "I tried to convince them to cancel this idea but they refused"

Selim put his hand on Ibrahim's shoulder "It's just extra classes.. come on nothing will happen"

Selim and Bayazid like to skip classes so they can focus on their physical strength.

I ignored their discussion and asked seriously "Did your father allowed you to do that?"

Selim nodded "Yes, he said my şehzades are allowed to do whatever they want"

Bayazid turned to him "Come on, we have to leave quickly before Orhan sees us"

I laughed a little watching them then continued on my way to Mehmet's chambers.

"Mehmet" I approached his desk and sat next to him.

He turned to me with the most beautiful smile "Hello butterfly"

"I see that you allowed the boys to break some rules" I finished my sentence and took the glass of water and drank a little from it.

"They wanted to do that and since they took my permission it is not considered breaking the rules" he put a paper from his hands then sighed "It's good that you are here I wanted to talk to you about something important"

I raised my eyebrows worriedly just by the tone of his voice I knew that what he was about to say was not positive "What?"

He started explaining "Yesterday when Safiye Sultan got tired and the doctor came, she said that she was just a little sick but she hid something that she told me alone"

I didn't say anything but I was following what he was saying with great interest.

"Safiya Sultan has gout, which makes her joints hurt a lot and sometimes she feels constantly tired" He sighed a little as if what he was about to say was very bad "She said that the disease is in a serious stage and has started to affect her heart"

It took me a while to comprehend, I know she is very old but I did not expect that she has such a serious disease... My eyes filled with tears and then I felt Mehmet wrap his arms around.

After a short while I raised my head "Everything will be fine" He nodded, then I added "I came here to ask you about the Divan and what did you decide?"

"Everyone agreed that the date we chose is very appropriate" He looked into my eyes "In the spring our campaign will start, InshAllah"

I sighed a little...The two times he went on the campaign I did not sleep well and remained tense for long months.

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I was walking in the middle of a huge hall and from my first glance I understood that it was a party in the middle of the palace, but the strange thing was that everyone was unhappy and seemed to be in a state of sadness or something.

I looked at my clothes to find myself wearing a white dress decorated with some golden engravings and in my hand was one of Mehmet's rings.

Despite my feeling of surprise from all these strange things in this silent party, I continued on my way until I saw Mehmet's throne and next to it five chairs...

Mehmet's crown caught my attention, which was lying on the ground in a neglected manner as if it had been there for many years.

I approached it, picked it up and started cleaning it with the hand that I was wearing that ring on.. After that I walked a few steps and put it on Mehmet's throne and turned to leave the place. Before I exited the hall door, I moved my head towards the throne again to find that the crown had moved its place and this time it was on the third chair.

I woke up nervously while my whole body was full of sweat... I heard Mehmet's voice next to me saying "What's wrong?"

I was still thinking about the nightmare and I couldn't speak or say anything... He stood up and gave me a glass of water "Calm down... I'm with you, it must have been just a nightmare"